Monthly Archives: September 2015

Linnea Eleanor “Bunny” Yeager (March 13, 1929 – May 25, 2014) Bunny Yeager started her career as a regionally famous model in Miami in the early 50’s appearing in over 300 magazines and publications (she won numerous local beauty pageants including Queen of Miami, Florida Orchid Queen, Miss Trailercoach of Dade County (!!!!), Miss Army & Air Force, Miss Personality of Miami Beach, Queen of the Sports Carnival and Cheesecake Queen of 1951.) Bunny augmented her modeling career with photography and meeting Bettie Page in 1954 she would find her muse. She would shoot over 1000 photos of Bettie creating her ‘girl next door image’ making Bettie the hottest pinup ever. Her shots are classics including the famous 1955 Playboy Christmas centerfold of Bettie kneeling at a small Christmas tree, naked except for a Santa hat. Bunny would also appear 5 times in Playboy as a model herself – one occasion actually shot by Hugh Hefner. Bunny would go on to shoot for mainstream magazines like Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Womens Wear Dailey in the 60’s. She is credited w/ popularizing the Bikini all over the world, primarily w/ her shots of Ursula Andress coming out of the waves in a small 2-piece from the James Bond movie Dr. No. She’s even credited with coining the phrase cheesecake (for photos of pinups and other scantily clad women). Nice work, if you can get it.

Raquel Welch (born Jo Raquel Tejada; September 5, 1940) – Raquel first came to the attention of the public with her role in the sci-fi film The Fantastic Voyage. The next role was the big one – 1 Million Years BC. The photo of her in a doe skin bikini became the poster in every boys room and made her an instant sex symbol. She would continue to play the sex symbol but never the stupid sex kitten. She was the tough hot chick. Throughout the 60’s she would play opposite some of Hollywoods biggest leading men – James Stewart, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra – to name a few. The 70’s would find her flirting with a singing career – releasing the dance single “This Girl’s Back In Town” (to no real success).She’d also win a Golden Globe for her role in the 1974 film The 3 Musketeers. She would go on to play roles in various TV shows, throughout the decade and into the 80’s (Mork and Mindy, Seinfeld) and act on Broadway and had a show in Las Vegas. Most recently she’s been seen in the TV movie House of Versace – looking unbelievable at the age of 73.

Back before he was an old leather chew toy Iggy Pop was a vaguely glammy, pill addled kid from Ann Arbor MI. that would bend over backwards – literally, to perform with his band. Formed in 1967 with the Ashton brothers (Ron & Scot) along w/ Dave Alexander, the band would release 2 poorly received LPs before they imploded from massive heroin use and general bad feelings. Iggy would go on to have an extremely long and varied career reforming the Stooges in 2003 with the Asheton brothers and James Williamson. Ron and Scott would pass away in 2009 and 2014 respectively. And yet, Iggy lives on.

This is not the source material for these movies and TV shows, oh no, these are all written after the fact to squeeze one last tiny bit of cash out of the public. Nothing wrong with that. Who doesn’t want to read the novelization of, say, Childs Play 3 to get just a bit more exposition about Chuckie’s motives and thought process. I doubt that these are still being written today (though Star Trek and Star Wars both have tons of ‘inspired by’ novels) but from the 60’s through the nineties they were everywhere, most notably the used book bins of Goodwill and Salvation Army.

Brian Duffy (15 June 1933 – 31 May 2010) was an English photographer and film producer, best remembered for his fashion and portrait photography of the 1960s and 1970s. With fellow photographers; David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Duffy was a key player in Britain’s “Swinging Sixties” – a culture of high fashion and celebrity chic.

Socialising with actors, pop stars, royalty and the notorious gangsters, the Kray twins, they represented a new breed of photographer and found themselves elevated to celebrity status. Duffy commented on the culture shock the three were to the industry: ″Before 1960, a fashion photographer was tall, thin and camp. But we three are different: short, fat and heterosexual!″

Duffy’s relationship w/ David Bowie yielded one of the most iconic photos in pop history – the Alladin Sane lightning bolt cover. He’d go on to shoot 2 other Bowie covers – Lodger and Scary Monsters and Super Creeps.

In 1979 Duffy abruptly gave up photography attempting to burn many of his negatives in his studio yard but fortunately neighbours objected to the acrid smoke, the council were called and much of his work was saved. Although a large number of his images were lost. Duffy moved onto television commercials and in 1983 Duffy directed the music videos for Spandau Ballet, ABC and The Human League. By 1990 Duffy retired from all image making and followed his lifelong passion for furniture restoration and became an accredited BAFRA (British Antique Furniture Restoration Association) restorer. Duffy died on 31 May 2010, after suffering from degenerative lung disease.